Chapter 6: Mix-Up
A/N: Warning, language.
El watches the schoolyard from behind the chain-link fence. She checked the watch that Hopper had given her, it was almost time for the lunch break and soon the empty yard would be filled with students. She knew she was pushing the rules by sneaking out to find Mike again, but it just wasn't fair that she had to wait six hours to see him again. While Hopper had become reasonable with letting her walk-through town more and more, he always reminded her not to be stupid and be aware of her surroundings. This was why Jane had taken to cutting through the forest to get around so no one would see her.
When the sound of the bell echoes across the courtyard, Eleven's heart races and she smiles, knowing exactly where the party ate every day. She walks along the back fence, going near the shed behind the baseball diamond and near the pavement, where the group liked to eat and it allowed Max to skateboard around.
Her heart skips a beat when she sees the slightly lengthy dark hair of Mike. His back is to the fence and he's eating his sandwich while waiting for everyone else. Except he's in a different spot, much closer to the soccer field instead of the baseball diamond. Maybe he's trying to change it up a bit. The other thing she notices is that he's not wearing the same jacket that he was this morning... that shouldn't be concerning, he might've borrowed someone else's because it got dirty or something.
Feeling a bit playful, El decides to surprise Mike. She quiets her steps, easy enough considering she'd had to learn such practices when out in Hopper's cabin. The smile grows on her face as she reaches out and taps him on the shoulder.
"Mike," she says in a low voice.
However, the boy who turns around is not her boyfriend. He has the same hair colour and a similar-looking face, but he wears very big glasses that magnify his dark brown eyes. The guy throws his sandwich in the air in fear and jumps back up after seeing the pale face staring at him through the fence.
"What the fuck?!" he screeches. He steps back. "Don't ever sneak up on a guy like that!"
A different voice too.
El immediately begins to shrink away, becoming very afraid of this loud, Mike-looking boy.
"Hey, look I'm sorry I yelled at you, but you scared me so bad I almost crapped myself."
Eleven still begins to back away from the fence, ready to go back home again since Mike wasn't here. She's worried she missed her chance.
Richie stands at the fence, peering at this girl. She looked as scared as he did, maybe more so. She was a pretty-looking girl, with curly dark hair and wide curious eyes. She wore a pair of overalls and a dark shirt underneath, she could practically blend into her surroundings if she wanted to, which she just might at this point.
"Mike?" Eleven ventures, even though she knows it's not him.
"No sorry, I'm not Mike. The name's Richie. Richie Tozier. Do I look like this Mike? Is he better looking than me?"
Jane frowns and raises her eyebrow cautiously. This loud-mouthed boy is not her favourite person at the moment.
"It's a joke," Richie says, adjusting his glasses. "I just make up shit to make people laugh at me. Here watch this..." The bespectacled member of the Loser's club then goes into a five-minute routine involving two British guys and a Jamaican man. While Jane feels a bit off-put by his excessive energy, she does enjoy the funny voices he does so much that she manages to crack a smile. He reminds her of Dustin with his joking nature. Once Richie sees her grin, he stops his performance and points through the fence at her. "See that's what I like to do, make people laugh."
"That was funny," she says with more of a smile. She then gets slightly panicked when she sees more people coming towards Not-Mike. She begins to back away into the wooded area.
"That's exactly what I do, but hey I've got more if... hey, hey where are you going? I didn't get to do my Jack Nicholson. I do a great bit from The Shining... Come on..." Richie sighs in defeat. "Everyone's a fucking critic," he mutters to himself when he turns to see his friends approaching with their lunch bags.
"Hey Richie, w-who were you talking to?" Bill asks as he and the rest of the Loser's club all come over to sit on the grass and eat.
"There was some chick on the other side of the fence. She scared the crap out of me and called me Mike and then began to run as if I was Freddy Krueger holding a severed head. I got her to smile though before she ran away. She's a bit weird, spooks easily."
"Wonder what she's doing on that side of the fence," Beverly wonders aloud as she digs out her egg salad sandwich.
"She's probably homeschooled like our Mike is," Stan says as the group all sit on the grass under the shade of the tree to eat.
"Bit weird if you ask me," Eddie says, taking a puff of his inhaler before starting on his whole-grain sandwich.
"Nobody did," Richie smirks, before picking up his sandwich from the dirt and begins eating it again.
Eddie's face contorts in horror. "Do you not know where that's been? Someone could have taken a piss here and you're now eating from the dirt that..."
"Okay Eddie," Beverly cuts him off, not wanting to hear about germs and other gross stuff while they're eating. "We get the idea."
"So. How were everyone's first few periods, pardon the pun Bev, did you spend the whole time in the bathroom," Richie says, giving her a wink.
She rolls her eyes and flips him the bird.
"Beep, beep Richie," Stan snaps.
"I really like this school," Ben pipes up. "Their curriculum is so different from ours and I've already started checking out books about the history of this place."
The group rolls their eyes as Ben pulls out a series of books that he's already borrowed from the library.
"Did you know there's a government laboratory on the far side of town?"
Richie pretends to start snoring, trying to shut up the nerd of the group.
"W-What about you B-Beverly? Do you like it-t here?" Bill asks.
"I do, I love walking down the halls without someone calling me Beaverly or a slut every five minutes."
"It's different," Stan agrees. "I like the math teacher we have, Mr. Troller. He's really trying to make it more fun for us."
"Stan, have you lost your mind? Math can never be fun..."
"Just shut up Richie!" Stan barks.
"Whoa settle down Stan the Man," Richie says, going after his bagged chips. The goof of the group then smirks. "Having trouble getting girls to notice you?"
Stan just goes back to eating, having enough of Richie's bits.
"I think the classrooms should be cleaner and of course, the science teacher has to sit me in front of someone who chews gum. You know how unsanitary it is, how much spit flies out of your mouth after you blow a bubble and let it pop?" Eddie asks his friends
"I like the science teacher Mr. Rolland," Bev says. "He really tries to make it interesting."
"Are you guys going to sign up for A.V. Club?" Ben asks. "I want to see this new equipment they have."
"Nerd alert," Richie mutters before throwing a few chips at Eddie to annoy him.
"Knock it off Einstein," Eddie grumbles, trying to eat his apple.
Suddenly, a soccer ball comes flying off the field and whacks Richie in the head, knocking his glasses off and crushing the rest of Eddie's lunch. The entire group leans in to help their friend find his glasses as a couple of big-looking kids begin walking over to them, big smirks on their faces.
"Well if it isn't Frog Face and looks like he got lenses," the dark-haired bully taunts, laughing as he goes to pick up his soccer ball. He makes sure to stomp on Eddie's lunch more and takes up the dweeb's inhaler to tease him. He tosses the inhaler to his long-haired buddy, who holds it out of Eddie's reach. "What's the deal Four-Eyes? Your freak-a-zoid girlfriend not here to protect you now?"
The entire group of boys behind the bullies begin to laugh as the Loser's Club slowly stands up, Richie holding his head.
"What the hell are you talking about?" Richie barks.
"Don't play dumb Wheeler," the lighter-haired bully smirks, pushing Eddie away as he attempts to get his inhaler back.
"Is this entire town populated by shit-heads?" Richie snaps back.
The dark-haired bully bops the ball off of the nerd's head again, causing his glasses to break. Bill tries to help his friend but then goes to standby Beverly, who's ready to fight.
"What the hell is the matter with you?" Beverly barks, walking towards the group of boys.
"Aw, and another girl's here to defend you, how sweet, you must be from Derry," the bully says.
"Yeah, we are and we don't like being treated like shit," the fierce redhead barks, her hands clenching into fists.
"Why? Isn't that what's clogging your sewers right now?" the light-haired bully snickers and the rest of the group from the soccer field also laughs.
"Y-you want to be able t-to see through both eyes?" Bill asks, trying to be threatening, but the group just laughs at his stutter.
"Aw, we got the ginger, the stuttering robot, the wheezer, the four-eyes, afro dweeb, and the pig... What a bunch of losers..."
There's more laughter, that's when Beverly slugs the lead bully in the eye. He stumbles back into his friends, holding his face.
"You want to fucking go princess?" he snarls, dropping the soccer ball, ready to fight back. He'd been humiliated by a girl once before, and it would not happen again.
The Loser's Club stands ready to fight, they'd fought Bower's gang before and they were worse than these jerks, but the problem was, they are outnumbered.
"Yeah," Bev snarls, her fists still clenched.
"This will be so easy," the light-haired bully says. "There are nine of us and six of you losers. I seriously doubt wheezy here can even throw a punch. This should be over fast. Just so you know, I'm not above hitting girls."
"You should be," a voice calls from behind the Loser's Club. A kid who looks a lot like Richie walks over with an array of friends following him. None of them look particularly threatening but are angry enough to help the new kids. "Although it's clear there are more girls a lot tougher than you."
"Okay Losers, bring it on."